Peggy Hayes takes pictures with her phone of hot-air balloons as they launch from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield during the first Rocky Mountain BalloonFest on Sunday. The event was held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Airshow.

As Denver’s temperature hit 91 degrees just before lunch Monday, the city broke a record that has been in place for more than a decade.

Not since 2000 has Denver recorded 61 days of temperatures of 90 degrees or more, but with Monday officially passing 90 degrees, the Mile High City did just that — continuing a pattern of unrelenting hot weather this summer. The new record: 62 days.

As of Monday, the city has had 16 days of temperatures at 90 degrees or above this month, according to the National Weather Service.

“We’ve seen ridges of high-pressure systems just sit over us all summer,” said Kari Bowen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “And lower-pressure systems that might have rain in them have been staying to the north up into Canada.”

In July, Denver recorded 27 days of 90-degree weather, making for the hottest month on record for the city. The average year has 33 days in the 90s. Moreover, June was the hottest June recorded to date in Denver.

The 30-year average daily high in Denver for Aug. 22 to Aug. 26 is 85 degrees each day, according to the National Weather Service. Denver could very well break the mark of 61 days Monday, as the forecast calls for temperatures to again rise into the low 90s with mostly sunny skies.

“I’m very confident we’ll break the record,” Bowen said.

So how many days will the city surpass 90 degrees this year?

“It’s hard to put a number on it, really,” Bowen said. “We can definitely still see a few more, though.”

Bowen notes that cities across Colorado have seen record-breaking high temperatures this year. And many pockets of the Midwest and West have suffered through hot temperatures and droughts in 2012.

But some relief, in terms of cooler temperatures, is on the way for Colorado as September approaches.

“We are transitioning into fall, and we’ll be seeing temperatures cool off a bit,” Bowen said.

A native of Colorado, Kurtis Lee was a politics reporter for The Denver Post from February 2011 until July 2014. He graduated cum laude from Temple University in 2009 with a degree in journalism and political science. He previously worked as an online writer in Washington, D.C., for the PBS NewsHour.

The Larimer County coroner on Sunday performed an autopsy on the body found on a farm just east of Loveland Saturday, but the office will not release the cause of death or the identity of the person until they can track down next of kin.